Chapter 329

  Not Superstitious, Just OCD

  “She’s still at it,” Valeria whispered to Penelope.

  “Yes, this is truly a moment to learn from,” Penelope quipped back.

  By now everyone had come to our makeshift laboratory, which so happened to have been set up right there, in the Supply Depot.

  This was great, as it meant that I didn’t have to take any items from here and move them to an area where I would have to improvise a standard Alchemical laboratory.

  Instead, I now must deal with hundreds of people staring at me and watching me as I go through the motion of creating and further refining Extra Trait Slot Recipe.

  “I still don’t get it though, why is it such a feat to watch her? I mean she is using a recipe, right?” Valeria asked.

  I can hear all of this, but fortunately I am a consummate professional, meaning I never let my mind get distracted for too long while actively engaged in watching the various magical properties interact with each other.

  “Watch, and you will see the difference between someone who merely is good at baking, and someone who truly excels at cooking,” Penelope posed.

  “Aren’t they the same thing?” Valeria asked.

  At this Rune-Ulacrum just turns and stares at Valeria as if she couldn’t understand the words coming out of her mouth. This was good as it meant I could stay focused.

  Not so focused that I have my tongue out, I checked. Well Rune-Ulacrum is here to help me maintain some dignity during this process.

  Also, Rune-Ulacrum is invaluable as I can just point and share a quick Telepathic transmission with her of my want and the general layout of runes and energy signatures I need in any area. Then she begins to work, a second set of independent hands and feet that can also produce a pinch of ephemeral energy when needed.

  “No, baking is at best a highly specialized subsection of cooking. Baking is the recipe, it is taking a known and practiced formula, following instructions exactly, and then getting a set result once you are complete.” Penelope dictates.

  Both Rune-Ulacrum and I nod in agreement.

  There is a slight pause as apparently seeing the two of us nod in unison is odd to them.

  “Okay, and what is cooking in that case?” Valeria asks.

  “Cooking is how you eventually end up with a new recipe. It is how you take vanilla pudding, add in cocoa powder mix and get something new.”

  “Does that work?”

  “Who knows, sounds like you need to try out and see if it does or doesn’t work, the point is that you tried.”

  Hearing their conversation, I make sure to add in my own sage advice, “don’t mix coca cola with coca puffs, it will produce an acidic sludge that I’m pretty sure can be used to polish silverware.”

  “BLEH!” They both cry out at that comment.

  “Who does that?” Penelope chastises this time.

  I just shrug, “I was ten and in a hurry. But it is those early lessons that you remember for a lifetime.”

  Silence.

  I get back to work.

  “What are you doing?” Valeria finally asks as I get through two more single samples.

  There are larger vats that can be used to produce greater quantities, but I am still in that trial and error method.

  “Best to just leave her alone, she, or rather they are in their zone,” Rob spoke from the corner.

  This entire time he never took his eyes off of me. Well his third eye at least, which means I assume the lifeless husks that are his two normal eyes also stared forward.

  How is he doing that? It is my understanding that such an act is nauseating the first few times being performed. Yet he is there using both Angel’s Sight and regular vision both at the same time.

  I wonder if there is a skill that could be gained from that, some type of overlapping vision skill?

  Snap!

  There is a thick crisp crack that happens next to my ear. I am instantly annoyed, but the moment I realize it was my own Simulacrum stopping me from getting distracted I nod and get back to the present.

  Then I remember the question from my Apprentice. Since she is here and asking questions I should take the moment to answer her.

  “I am testing for variations in the process. Starting with stress tests, I have broken this recipe down to ten main parts. These are parts where the alchemical processes need to meet certain temperatures, have certain ingredient types added, or times when other kinetic catalysts are needed to induce a chemical equilibrium in the substance. From there we began doing stress tests.” I state, at this time Rune-Ulacrum pulls out her book and begins showing the different alterations that we have tested thus far.

  “What is that?” Valeria asks.

  “Those are runes, yeah probably not the best for conveying idea, but handy for shorthand.” I answer, realizing we might have just created even more questions with that demonstration.

  “I think the second phase is the area for the most alteration, that is where we use the green thingy.” I explain.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  At that, Rune-Ulacrum just nods and goes over to pick up the reagent that glows green when allowed to dissolve into the mixture.

  “That’s blue,” Valeria quipped.

  “It just appears blue, but Cass is talking about the way it looks when it boils in her concoction.” Rob says.

  Shiver.

  Just hearing him call out my name so off handedly sends a shiver down my spine. I still can’t talk to him, not directly. At least not now that he knows who I am. Fortunately, ever since the instance of many slaps, he has seemed to calm down a bit.

  I also realize that this is Rob doing his defense of me to others. At the time, I thought it was the most annoying thing in the world, him explaining what I was doing, as if I couldn’t speak for myself. Worse he would often get things wrong, and when it was explained how wrong he was, people still liked his explanation better because it came from him.

  It was completely frustrating, and yet I can tell that he is truly trying to help. Which of course only makes this worse.

  Snap.

  Rune-Ulacrum just snaps her fingers again as she holds up another reagent that seems to dimly glow with a lime green color, slightly lighter than the standard green we were working with.

  “Okay, I like this, but I think we need something to counteract this. Something slightly blue,” I reply to Rune-Ulacrum who begins to go about searching the entire warehouse for more items.

  There is a process here, all the items that were on the initial inventory table for display were free, as I had earned those. Then any other items Rune-Ulacrum gathered that I would then experiment with would cost extra.

  Rune-Ulacrum would go out, grab the item, register it with one of the watchers on hand they would nod and then come back to me.

  Each time she did this, I could feel money coming from my bank account. A bank account that I probably should have begun to pay a bit more interest in. But for now, I assumed we were good to go as there was never any push back on what we ordered.

  Heck, I was pretty sure the guild wouldn’t mind my going into debt with these purchases.

  “That is blue,” Valeria hisses.

  “No, again, blue energy,” Gwen stated stepping in and pointing towards the lime green spot of energy. Energy that Valeria can’t see. At this time, I decide to use this as a teachable moment.

  “You know, if you were practicing your Mana Linguistics, you might be able to see the energy fluctuations that Gwen is now indicating.” I point out.

  Valeria looks like she wants to protest, but Rune-Ulacrum distracts us both with providing a nearly perfect light blue cauliflower type item.

  “Perfect, just the shade of light blue we needed.” I reply.

  “That’s white, and cauliflower,” Valeria points out.

  Oh, I was right all along, nice.

  “Magically infused cauliflower. We’ve found that many of our fields here now grow supercharged fruits and vegetables. Thust the need to study them here, in the Supply Depot.” Gwen stated, letting me into more Guild knowledge that I didn’t know about before. At least, I didn’t think I knew this? Looking back, this should have been a natural conclusion as we have daily magical rainstorms that are produced from dozens of magical pillars that have been erected all around the territory.

  I then hold up the two items side by side and notice an issue.

  “You see it?” I ask myself, but fortunately unlike all the other times when I talk to myself and get no response, this time I nod my head in agreement.

  “Yeah, looks like the green is about a third more powerful than the blue.” I state, to which I, or rather Rune-Ulacrum nod in confirmation.

  “Okay, so,” I state, while moving both items to the mixing apothecary table, and then hold up my hand.

  Without even having to ask, Rune-Ulacrum grabs the giant Ginsu knife and hands it to me, where I then turn the green energy stock to the side just a tad, and then make a quick precision slice. I can feel my Daggers skill coming into play with this action and I am reminded of my first few years here. Years where I wondered if I would have to kill to survive.

  While I am glad I had the skills, but never had to use them for their more violent effects, I am thankful that I never let my knowledge or practice with my skills decline, either.

  With the third cut away I visibly inspect the two ingredients and feel that the power for each is just enough that they are equal in residual power. All while Rune-Ulacrum clears up the table of the scrap. Not discarding that piece but instead putting it off to the side as a possible reagent to be used later.

  Then noting the equilibrium of energy, I then take the two reagents and dice them down into thirds, then halves. They are now one sixth their original size and level of energy from earlier.

  With that I pause, looking over my work, all while Rune-Ulacrum nods and makes a note of the six blue and six green reagents.

  As soon as we are set, she nods to me and I begin the process again, and again.

  Each time we slightly alter the process. I then go over what I observed when we added in the new stimuli to the equation. Rune-Ulacrum either nods or shakes her head and gesticulates minor discrepancies in what I am describing. Then we get more agents, refine the runes being used during each process, and slowly over time, we get a more and more potent mixture.

  Of course, this doesn’t’ help much when the end result is an Extra Trait Slot elixir.

  “What exactly are you doing?” Valeria finally asks, as frustration is clearly getting to her.

  “Science,” I explain. Then I almost feel the need to justify the use of science in this case, even though we are clearly in the realm of Alchemy. But then again, thinking back on it Alchemy was always the bridging field that could link both magic and science together.

  “Okay, but what exactly are you trying to change, it is an Extra Trait Slot Recipe that you are using. So far every concoction you have made has produced what was described, that of an extra trait slot. So again, what is it that you are trying to do by altering this clearly advanced and potent formula?” Valeria asks.

  Hearing it, I want to yell at her, as this is clearly something more important to me than it is to her. But I stop myself and take a deep breath, before trying to explain why this is important to me.

  “I see where you are coming from. You say, that this is an elite recipe, one that I should be thankful for just having, and therefor I shouldn’t look into it, and try to understand what it is. Because to you, this is high end magic, or basically a way to say things just happen and to deal with it. I’m telling you that magic, at least in this world is definable. It has limits and will meet expectations if you know what the limits for those expectations are. By just taking this recipe and using it over and over, you are doing no good. You aren’t improving the world, you are just lining your coffers with money. See you look at this and think can? Can I do this, what can be done once this is over?”

  I pause for a moment to try to calm down the slight edge that is clearly seeping into my words after pushing my mind to the limit of discovery, while trying to figure out what the magical levels are for Alchemy.

  I’m almost at the point where I think adding Qi to the mixture would be beneficial, particularly if I used Qi as a natural cocoon for certain ingredients that would then slowly bleed away into the overall mixture.

  “But I look at this recipe and see can’t. Why can’t it do more? Why can’t it have easily understandable ingredient and combination lists that detail the chemical reactions, their properties and effects easily mapped out?”

  I pose these questions and then continue.

  “But it doesn’t, instead all we get is one known completion process for how something can be done, with no indication why, or what can be defined from this process. Just that it can be done.” I reply.

  Silence.

  I realize I might have gone a bit too hard on this one topic, but then decide to work on the next set, this time testing out the results for using two more portions or both the green and blue reagents.

  This time Valeria, like everyone else, the four directly next to me, along with the dozens of onlookers who are recording my actions from the conveniently placed balconies, to the supply item auditors, everyone is further away and not engaging with me, at least verbally. Yet, I can feel the gazes of everyone on me, or rather on the actions I am performing currently.

  “Okay, but why do you always stir to the left? Is that some type of Alchemical hack?” Valeria finally asks after the second round, but only after Rune-Ulacrum and I share results, another success but that was to be expected.

  Hearing her question, I pause and then realize she is right, I do always stir to the left, but then I realize the answer to that is fairly straightforward.

  “I guess you could say I am Alchemical lefty. Where I always do my procedures to the left.” I reply, as I mentally try to come to terms with how and why this is even a thing to ask about.

  “Okay, but why?” Valeria presses.

  I just shrug.

  Fortunately, Gwen is there to add insight into this process, “I think it is due to her always stealing lessons from the higher-level Alchemists from outside the Alchemy Guild. She would just be there for hours mirroring the movements of the masters, and it just so happened that the grand master of the Malteese Guild was left-handed, thus her process of always stirring to the left.”

  Shock.

  Wow, when your own daughter knows you better than you know yourself. I think to myself and try to refute, but then I realize she was correct. I used to love watching that old man with my Angel’s Sight and mirror his actions perfectly from the Thieves Guild down below the Alchemy Guild. Having been in the dark and by myself I assumed I was alone, but apparently, I wasn’t. While I might have been alone in this world, I need to remember that someone is always watching and analyzing my every move. Kind of creepy, but something we must deal with.

  “Is that true?” Valeria asks, turning her head to me.

  I just nod and shrug at the same time, “yeah, now that I remember. That was how I first learned the processes of Alchemy, from watching the old left handed master work.”

  “So it could work, if you stirred to the right?” Valeria presses.

  “It should, I don’t see why it wouldn’t.” I reply.

  “What if you did half and half? You know, half one way, then get to one of these ten stopping points and then trying to stir in the other direction?” She poses.

  “These are good questions, but I don’t think they would change anything.” I reply.

  “But you don’t know for certain?”

  “No, I don’t,” I admit.

  “So why not try?”

  Shiver.

  “I don’t feel comfortable doing so?” I reply, realizing that my Apprentice is pushing me in ways I might not want to go, but then I realize this is what growing as an Alchemist and a person entails.

  “But why?”

  “I don’t think it will do much of a difference,” I state lamely realizing that this might be even more processes to add, particularly if I infuse different Qi types into each stir.

  This is of course when Gwen buts in, “you know, a wise woman once told me to know the difference between superstition and OCD.”

  Hearing that I just inhale and sigh deeply, as I realize she is going for a cheap shot.

  “What’s that?” Valeria asked.

  “The difference between something being superstition is believing it to prevent or cause something due to supernatural means. While OCD is just a tick.”

  “Okay?” Valeria pauses not quite certain where this is going.

  “The trick is to find out if you are doing something because it is superstition, or an actual tick.”

  “Okay, but why?”

  “Well, you can break a superstition, but it is increasingly harder to break a natural tick. Now we just need to see how easy it is to break the mother of this habit she has found herself relying on too much,” and like that Gwen the traitor returns.

  “Blah, you know you were adopted.” I quip.

  This is our joke, but surprisingly Rob, who had been mostly quiet to this point, looked angered by that flippant comment.

  “What?”